


Grave Conversations

by annegirlblythe



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dean is sad, Everyone Is Dealing With the Fallout From the War, Gen, PTSD, Parvati is Sadder, Post Battle of Hogwarts, The Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 14:56:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9907727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annegirlblythe/pseuds/annegirlblythe
Summary: Dean doesn't know how to comfort Parvati. Understanding her trauma shouldn't mean talking about his, should it?"Dean trails off. He wishes he could be a little more like Bill Weasley - grave without being depressed, serious without being sad, gentle without being ignorant. He wishes he could give the comfort his friend needs right now."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning for death, trauma and mentions of self-harm. Please don't read if talking about the horrors of war is going to take you to a bad place.

The Patil home is large and, though it’s decorated tastefully, the minimalist design makes Dean feel cold rather than calm. It always has - summer visits with Parvati always make him glad to be back in the warm clutter of his own home. The pointed absence of Lavender is hurting him, too, making Dean feel empty and freezing. He wonders how many times his own grief is magnified in Parvati. 

He’s supposed to be comforting her, but he mostly feels useless, empty and grieving himself. Seamus spent the war with both girls, he would know what to say, if he hadn’t let himself be drawn into Neville’s school restoration project, leaving Dean and Parvati alone together to make sense of the world. 

“Maybe what you need is some good old-fashioned gossip,” Dean finally says. He hasn’t heard any since Colin’s funeral. If he’s stagnated, she must practically shaking with it. 

“You think I can replace my best friend with trashy tabloids?” Parvati demands cuttingly, then, in the same breath, asks, “Literally where is my copy of the Prophet?”

“I threw it out this morning,” Dean answers dully. “Sorry. Didn’t want another day of dead faces.” 

“Ugh. Well. I do have a letter from Hermione,” Parvati suggests. “I could read it out mockingly. That might make me feel better.” 

An unexplained annoyance flares in Dean’s chest at this, and he takes a sharp breath to avoid being swallowed up by that basement again - “Lay off of Hermione.”

“Where did that come from?” Parvati rolls over on the white couch to face Dean, her pretty face swollen with tears and an Alecto Carrow-sized lash near her ear. 

“She’s our friend, ‘Vati. We grew up with her.” Dean tries to explain, hoping he won’t have to retell the story. Hoping he won’t have to relive it. 

“Yeah, she’s our _friend_. And I love her, but she’s still a bitch and a half.” Parvati says, using her favorite descriptive insult for Hermione. 

True. Dean tries to steady himself. It’s hard. “She’s been through a lot.” 

“Since the age of eleven? Why do you care anyway?” 

Gossip. He’d certainly taken the whole _comfort Parvati_ thing in a twisted direction, hadn’t he? A war, a year away from people will do that to you. “You know how I was in the basement at Malfoy Manor?” 

Parvati nods, gravely, and Dean is grateful that she isn’t asking for details he can’t voice yet. 

“Right up at the end, weeks before the Battle, Harry and Ron and Hermione were captured, too. Harry and Ron were tossed down in the basement with me and Luna and them, but Hermione…” Here, Dean’s voice breaks off, and he can’t look up for fear he’ll break down. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Bellatrix Lestrange tortured her. Badly. The Crutiatus curse, but also…”

“We all went through that kind of thing, Dean,” Parvati says softly, reaching up for her own barely healed laceration. 

“Not like this, it was the worst thing I heard or saw the entire war, including the Battle. It’s one of the worst recurring nightmares, too, and it wasn’t even me.” Dean says, unable to elaborate, lest the image of an arm sliced open with a judgment on its blood come back unbidden – “Anyway,  as soon as we escaped, as soon as we were back at Bill Weasley’s place, she…she popped back up and started taking care of everybody again. I couldn’t believe how strong she was, how quickly she pulled herself back together. ‘Vati, it really was the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” 

“Oh.” 

“So. If you could lay off her, just a little.” 

“Okay,” she answers slowly. “Sorry, I didn’t know.” 

“I know. I know, I didn’t mean to make you even more miserable. Shea put me on cheering up, and here I am…” Dean trails off. He wishes he could be a little more like Bill Weasley - grave without being depressed, serious without being sad, gentle without being ignorant. He wishes he could give the comfort his friend needs right now. 

“No, it’s..good. Remembering that we aren’t the only ones suffering.” 

“Yeah, well. I’ve got plenty of that if you need more uplifting stories of human suffering.” 

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, turning back to her original position on the couch, away from Dean, her pretty head again the only part of her he can see. It makes the whole thing feel a little more normal. “I feel like I could be okay about the whole thing if Lavender…” She bites off a sob, and Dean’s heart hurts. 

“I know,” he answers. 

“No. You don’t. Seamus is still here. You can’t possibly imagine it.” 

With that, Parvati stands, giving Dean a sarcastic salute. “Gonna go take a bath. Feel free to stay. Or go back to Hogwarts and help Neville with his thing. I’m gonna go try not to slit my wrists, and if I’m still alive when I get out, I’ll write back to Hermione.” 

Dean’s mouth hangs open for a second before she makes a dismissive gesture. “You weren’t there. We all talked like this last year - it was how we survived. You and Loony Lovegood got torches and apples from Draco Malfoy, we sat in the Room of Requirement and told jokes about being murdered in the passageway.”

He sighs, and she says, as gravely and serious as he’s ever heard her, “We all dealt with the war how we needed to, Dean. We’re still dealing. We don’t have to do it together.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm harryjamesheadcanons on tumblr :)


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